Service for peace gathers community together

Love, forgiveness were major themes at ecumenical gathering.

Love, forgiveness were major themes at ecumenical gathering.

December 04, 2006|ROBIN TOEPP Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- Despite cold and snow, the full sanctuary at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. James warmed up fast Sunday afternoon as worshippers representing more than 24 area Christian churches gathered for an ecumenical service to pray for peace and nonviolence in South Bend. Noting that Sunday church is typically one of the most segregated of functions, the Rev. Tina Velthuizen described the service as an effort to cross racial and cultural barriers. The two-hour service began with personal stories of contact with violence and ended with interdenominational words of prayer. "There's a lot of violence in our community, in lots of communities," said Velthuizen, rector of Church of the Holy Trinity. "Our goal is to bring together Christians in prayer and to send them out, send ourselves out with renewed commitment to ending violence. We had the goal to be very practical so it can be to forgive someone who has offended you." Forgiveness took on a major role in the beginning of the service, which focused on the human condition of violence, profiled through several stories. The first of those came from Bobbie Woods, who lost her son, Terrell Woods, following a fatal shooting in 1993. "I said to God, 'You have to help me, I can't do this alone.' I know for a fact He carried me. That night I had faith that the Lord can take care of me and He did. Although it hurts today, it doesn't hurt as much as it did yesterday, and the next step is forgiveness," Woods said. She went on to describe a letter from her son's killer, a letter from prison asking her for forgiveness. She said she is trying to do that. "How can I ask God to forgive me if I can't forgive others," Woods said. "Whatever problems you may have with anyone, and it may be small, it may be simple, you have to do it, forgive." A soft-spoken woman named Karla Otiatio told the congregation she had been a victim of domestic violence. "I've been cut, stabbed, and God saved my life," Otiatio said. "There were days I didn't think I would make it. Sometimes we look for love in the wrong places." Finally, there was a father of three, John Bell, who told a story of a man with a family and a good job who was struggling to pay the bills and descended into drugs and crime. "The hood culture taught him to avoid therapy," Bell said. Bell revealed that he was describing himself. He said he shot a man, though not fatally. After the man recovered, Bell said, the man forgave him. Then, Bell said, his family and the community forgave him and rallied around him to help him clean up his life. "I want to thank this community for its forgiveness, for salvaging human capital," Bell said. "It was restorative justice as opposed to criminal justice." The service concluded with prayers by ministers of several Christian denominations and several races. "We are in perilous times," the Rev. Barney Lewis of the Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church, told the worshippers. "But God is long-suffering toward sinners because some of them will become believers."